Today I’ll be using two articles to form a brief analysis between two lines of thought.

The first article explains how Pandora may be a dying brand, personally I still feel that Pandora is a valuable tool, as I personally have not found any service to rival it’s music discovery.

The second article touches on how Nintendo, the legendary company that brought us the Nintendo Entertainment System, the same that also found themselves at the bottom of the heap, brought themselves back from the brink.

Overall I think that it’s interesting how consumer choices really drive how a company fairs in today’s competitive and connected market, people want choices, and they want something that is attractive.

A new type of solar panels are 20% more effective than current technologies. They are 3D printed and also include the use of mirrors to help concentrate the power of the sun. They are cheaper to make as well.

Texas Instruments has just introduced a new micro controller. It is smaller than most and only has one programmable part. It has a lot of analog and digital elements that allow it to be used in a wide variety of applications.

Ha! Interesting… Bram Cohen, the man who brought us the bitcoin has started a new eco-friendly option to the bitcoin-the chia. The bitcoin runs on “proofs of work,” which uses more electricity than its successor. Chia runs on “proofs of (storage) space” which requires less energy.

Brick-and-mortar stores have been in decline in the wake of internet shopping. There is however, a glimmer of hope with the rising generation Z. To cater to this generation stores will need to integrate more technology to optimize the shopping experience.

This article explores the expansion of the mobile phone market along with it’s potential and opposition. However, it is interesting in how it notes this technology can be used to help keep Africa informed especially in light of things like their upcoming elections.

This article touches on the AI/Digital Assistant war, it is interesting to see that early polls conducted by Business Insider find a nearly equally divided preference between Alexa, Google, and Siri. It is also interesting to think of this as a corollary in America when combined with other articles which outline the differences between each in spaces including security, advertising, personalization, and perceived level of intelligence.

https://www.cnet.com/news/asgardia-1-space-kingdom-nasa-orbital-atk-launch-nation/#ftag=CAD590a51e
– A nation based entirely in space? Count me in! Well almost. Asgardia is a data storage unit currently in space and it houses data owned by thousands of “citizens”. It doesn’t contain any living humans but does contain their data and germinates new questions based on human life and interaction not based entirely on Earth.https://www.cnet.com/news/boses-new-noise-masking-sleep-buds-may-change-your-life/
– Sure you’ve heard of noise-canceling headphones, but what about noise-making ones? We’re not talking about the ones you pop in your ears when you’re walking from class to class, no these are different because you wear them in your sleep. These upcoming “sleep buds” act as personal white noise machines while you sleep. Drown out your spouse’s snoring and have personal alarms for yourself that won’t wake them with these personal ear buds from Bose.

Using a magnatized electronic thread, a new type of “smart clothes” can start to be a realistic idea. These types of threads are waterproof and can even go through a laundry cycle. The application would be for things such a badges for doctors and other places with key cards. Instead the code would be sown into their cuff. Or another application would be invisible tags at stores that are sown into clothes to prevent theft.

Instead of printing important documents as 2D papers, printed them instead as 3D micro-structures could help prevent forgery. They would still look and feel 2D and the intricacies of the 3D microstructures would be hard to detect.